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Almost 100,000 military personnel from Europe and the US have been deployed for the largest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War.
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Exercise Steadfast Defender 24, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s largest exercise in decades, is designed to demonstrate rapid trans-Atlantic deployment of forces from North America and other parts of the alliance to reinforce the defence of Europe.
The exercise will be based on an invented scenario “triggered by a fictitious attack against the alliance launched by a near-peer adversary”, according to US officials.
“NATO exercises are not directed against any country. In an unpredictable security environment, we must remain ready to deter all threats and to defend all allies.”
More than 90,000 service members from 31 NATO allies and Sweden have been confirmed for the exercise, after it was approved at last year’s Vilnius Summit in Lithuania.
Under the first tactical movement of the exercise, Whidbey Island Class dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) has left Viriginia in the US on 24 January as it prepares for additional operations and transit across the Atlantic.
In addition, Canadian Halifax Class frigate HMCS Charlottetown (FFH 339) will depart Halifax in Canada for Europe later this month.
“The alliance will demonstrate its ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area via trans-Atlantic movement of forces from North America,” according to Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Christopher Cavoli.
“Steadfast Defender 2024 will be a clear demonstration of our unity, strength, and determination to protect each other, our values and the rules-based international order.”
Steadfast Defender 24 associated exercises will also take place right through to the middle of this year in May and June as NATO tests its ability to conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe.
The exercise will take place primarily in Finland, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. It’s understood that more than 50 naval assets including aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, and corvettes will be utilised in addition to F-35s, FA-18s, Harriers, F-15s, helicopters, and various unmanned aerial vehicles.
There will also be more than 1,100 combat vehicles including more than 150 tanks, 500 infantry fighting vehicles, and 400 armoured personnel carriers.
The major military exercise is considered to be NATO’s largest since Reforger 88 exercise in 1988, which involved more than 125,000 military personnel being rapidly deployed to support West Germany in the event of conflict in Europe.
The People’s Republic of China (which is not taking part in the exercise) has weighed in on the exercise announcement, declaring NATO a “walking war machine”, on 26 January.
“As a regional military organisation, NATO has launched and fought many wars around the world since its establishment,” said PRC Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Senior Colonel Wu Qian.
“In recent years, NATO has been inching closer to the Asia-Pacific and using the non-existent ‘China threat’ as an excuse to advance bloc confrontation, which poses a threat to regional security.
“It’s fair to say NATO is like a walking war machine, wherever it goes, there will be instability.”
